


Just Like Honey

by greenforsnow



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: But you know it's coming, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-22 23:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23501881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenforsnow/pseuds/greenforsnow
Summary: Jim surprises Spock with a treat during their morning meal.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Comments: 14
Kudos: 123





	Just Like Honey

Spock had a comfortable morning routine on the Enterprise while he served under Captain Pike. He would rise early, practice Suus Mahna, and consume a simple breakfast of tea and stewed vashoun grain before his shift began. Like so many things that had been comfortable and routine, all of that was disrupted by the arrival of Jim Kirk. The new captain had first asked him to accompany him on what he called his “morning patrol” a few weeks after he arrived. Spock had accepted the invitation— curious about his new captain and the way he interacted with his crew.

The Captain’s patrols consisted of him walking around the ship before the start of his shift, and talking to the crewmembers of each department. At first Spock had been concerned that the crew would feel they were being assessed or feel their captain did not trust them to do their work adequately without his supervision. However, it soon became clear that the opposite was true. The crew was flattered by their Captain’s attention. He noticed a project on a small table in the corner of one of the botany labs that was an enthusiastic lieutenant's side project. In engineering he knew just the right questions to ask that the crew members there circled around him talking over each other in their eagerness and excitement to explain a new phenomenon. Everywhere he went he seemed to understand each crew member’s area of interest and had a talent of asking the right questions to invoke their pride and enthusiasm. It wasn’t only the captain’s open curiosity and well thought-out questions that put the crew at ease, Spock realized as he observed the man. He had changed his posture— his body language was entirely different from the way it usually was. Spock calculated that his spine was just three percent more curved than it was on the bridge. He leaned towards the crew members he was talking to instead of just turning his head towards them. His whole presence appeared smaller. Spock wondered if he realized what he was doing or if it was something that did not require conscious thought for the Captain. Either way, his proficiency at putting other people at ease was clear. 

It wasn’t until the end of the walk through the various departments that Spock realized that he had not spoken a word. He had simply followed behind the Captain silently and astutely observing his every movement and word. He grew concerned that he had in fact been making the Captain feel uncomfortable, but the concern was erased by the broad grin on the other man’s face as he asked him to join him for breakfast. Spock sensed his own desires stretching against his usual boundaries when Jim made the request— something that had been happening more and more frequently since the man beamed aboard— but he agreed.

Jim had not asked him to join him on another patrol, but he did invite him to join him for breakfast every day until it became an expected part of each of their days. Spock was surprised by how much he enjoyed the new addition to his morning routine. In fact, he found himself shortening his Suus Mahna session and rising earlier in order to extend the time that he and Jim spent sitting across the table at the mess hall. It did not relax him or sharpen his senses, but he found that it grounded and invograted him nonetheless.

On this particular morning, over a year after Jim and he had first shared their morning meal, Jim came jogging over to him with a peculiar smile on his face. Months ago, Spock had begun a secret project in his own mind where he categorized each one Jim’s smiles. This one was new. He would qualify it as _coy_ or _conspiratorial_.

Jim led him gently to their usual table “I have a treat for us,” he said in a whisper. 

Spock noted that Jim had set two cups of tea in front of their usual seats instead of Jim’s usual cup of coffee. Spock sat and looked at the other man in question. 

Jim grinned back and leaned closer across the table. “Sulu has been raising bees,” he said, “honey bees.” 

Spock raised a singular eyebrow. Lieutenant Sulu had not followed the appropriate procedures to begin raising a new lifeform aboard the ship. He knew, because he would have had to sign off of form QSP2407 if he had. 

“I know, I know,” Jim said before Spock could say anything, “But they are _bees_. The botany department is thrilled. And they won’t cause any problems.”

“There is no way you can claim that with certainty. Introducing any lifeforms to a closed system like a starship, always carries risk. Hence the importance of Form QSP2407.”

Jim smiled sheepishly, and waved a hand in dismissal. “I’ll make sure Sulu files the right paperwork,” Jim paused, “They almost went extinct, you know.”

“In Earth’s 21st century,” Spock said.

“Of course you know the story,” Jim said with a fond smile, “But the point is,” Jim said and leaned closer across the table while pulling something from the sleeve of his shirt. It was a small glass vial filled with a bright amber substance. 

“Honey,” Jim said accompanied by a brilliant grin. “Have you had it before?”

Spock shook his head. He hadn’t tried much Terran food during his time at the Academy and in space, anything not synthesized was rare. 

“It takes on the favor of whatever the bees have been eating. So in this case it is Sulu’s special Velarcian orchids. It’ll be delicious.”

“You haven’t tried it yet?”

“I was waiting for you.” Jim unscrewed the cap and held it below his nose to inhale. “Oh yes. This is going to be good.” 

Spock reached for the spoon resting beside his teacup, but Jim put a hand on his wrist to stop him. “No,” he said with a laugh, “the metal will dilute the taste.” He pulled Spock’s hand across the table by the wrist.

Spock was strangely captivated as Jim’s nimble fingers unscrewed the lid of the vial. The color of the substance inside was the same as Jim’s eyes, Spock noted. 

“Here,” Jim said, his voice still a whisper, even though there was no need for him to speak softly. There was no one at the surrounding tables and it was not as if Jim were doing something illicit.

Spock immediately regretted the thought of illicitness, as a moment later Jim reached out again to grab his hand in order to manually move his fingers. Jim was ordinarily careful about not touching Spock’s bare skin, but it seemed in his excitement he had forgotten. Spock quickly guarded himself from sensing any of Jim’s thoughts or feelings, but he was not fast enough to stop himself from feeling an overwhelming flood of _fondness_ that came pouring from the other man. Jim pulled Spock’s fore and middle fingers together and then let his hand trail down Spock’s palm to his wrist before falling on the table. Spock swallowed and did not have time to consider how he still felt the memory of Jim’s touch on his skin before Jim was pouring the amber liquid on to his fingers. 

The honey was still warm from being pressed against Jim’s wrist. It slid easily across the pads of Spock’s fingers so that he had to quickly place them in his mouth to avoid it spilling over the table.

The taste of the honey immediately overwhelmed him. Spock gripped the edge of the table with his other hand and found himself closing his eyes in order to block out other sensory input so he could focus on the taste. It was sweet, yes, that was the first thing he noticed. An extraordinary sweetness coated his tongue, but it was not overpowering in the way he had found many terran desserts in the past. There was an herbal and spiced edge to the flavor and it tasted _warm_.. The taste drew recollections of the Vulcan Sun into Spock’s mind. It’s intensity and heat— the consuming power of it. Days spent working underneath it in his mother’s garden, the pleasant warmth on his hair as the sun rose in the sky, the intense heat chasing away the coolness of the night. It traveled through him so his entire body felt warm and glowing.

It was the same things, Spock realized with a start, that he associated with Jim. The glow of his smile, the light of his eyes, and the gravity that seemed to draw Spock inexplicably closer to him every day. 

A hum of pleasure had escaped his lips before he gained control of his response.

Spock swallowed and withdrew his fingers. He looked up at Jim who was staring at him, frozen in motion. His fingers were still in his mouth and he was looking at Spock with wide eyes, the color of his irises reduced to a slender golden ring around his pupils. The expression on his face was strange. He looked surprised, but there was something else that Spock could not identify. 

Spock tried to look away from Jim’s fingers, the pink tip of his tongue curled between the ends of his strong fingers, which rested against his lips. The sight sparked a heat inside Spock, that he quickly identified as arousal. Spock pressed his lips tightly together. He was about to rise and excuse himself so he could find time to meditate before the start of alpha shift when Jim seemed to realize he was staring. 

He pulled his fingers from his mouth and laughed softly. “So you liked it? Did I interpret your reaction right?”

There was a soft pink color along Jim’s cheekbones, which Spock was finding distracting. He blinked and tried to compose himself. 

“You are correct,” Spock agreed, “The taste was quite satisfactory.” Spock stood quickly, the need to meditate pressing in his mind. “However Captain, I have to attend to a few matters in the chemistry lab before the start of the alpha shift,” Spock said. It wasn’t a lie. He did need to switch out his isoveric solutions. That would only take a matter of minutes, but he would do it before the start of his shift.

Jim’s eyes sharpened in concern and then he smiled. “Of course, Spock. Here,” he pressed the vial of honey into Spock’s palm. This time, Spock was prepared for Jim’s bare skin to touch his own and his shields were firmly in place. He still was not prepared for his own reaction to the touch or the electric sensation of it as Jim’s fingers trailed along his own. Jim stood quickly afterwards and left the mess hall at a brisk pace leaving Spock with just the vial of amber liquid and the ghost of sweetness on his tongue and the lingering sun-like sensation of Jim’s skin on his. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> [you can come talk to me on tumblr](https://m-b-w.tumblr.com/)


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